Selection of product designs using modified data envelopment analysis

ABSTRACT: Producing new products and representing the outstanding ones in a right time in a competitive market is considered to be a vital factor for each firm. To gain the customer's confidence in a specific product, each manufacturer tries to meet all the customer's demands when representing a product. This goal is not likely to be achieved unless the product represents all those special and demanded features which are supposed to satisfy customers' needs. Selecting the ideal design for a product is always considered to be a complex procedure since increase in number of attributes makes this selection more complicated. The ultimate success and popularity of the product is heavily depended on the selection methods used by manufacturers in order to assess the various designs. That is the reason which has captured the focus of researches to represent a solution to make the procedure easier and more accurate. To choose the most outstanding solution, this study uses Modified Data Envelopment Analysis. The attributes of products are categorized in two different levels as beneficial (output) and non-beneficial (input). Unlike the previous used methodologies this study is using a model which concentrates on performance attributes and not designers' preferences. Keyword: product design, inputs and outputs, beneficial attribute, modified data envelopment analysis. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………